Otto Camera Makes Animated GIFs: Web’s Cam

The Raspberry Pi and the animated .gif – two of the Internet’s favorite things come together in Otto, a quirky still and video camera. Powered by the Raspberry Pi Compute, Otto has a variety of features, foremost of which is the ability to make .gifs. Can you hear that? I think the folks at BuzzFeed just literally died and can’t evened.

To take a .gif, just pop out Otto’s crank and start rotating it. When you’re done, rewind the crank once and Otto will wirelessly send your masterpiece to your iPhone, where you can view and share the .gif through a complementary app. The app also lets you tweak how Otto works. Aside from creating animated .gifs, Otto has other filters and effects as well.

Thanks to its 5 megapixel Omnivision backside illuminated CMOS sensor, Otto can take up to 2592 x 1944 stills, record 1080p video at 30fps, 720p at 60fps and 640 x 480 at 90fps.

Otto’s software and hardware are also open for tinkerers to mess with. It also has Arduino-based add-ons called FlashyFlash that extend its functionality. For example, there’s a FlashyFlash with a piezoelectric microphone that you can use to visualize sound intensity.

Get ready to go viral and pledge at least $199 (USD) on Kickstarter to get an Otto camera as a reward.